WiFi Saturation in small home – A precautionary tale.

I have a GigaHertz HF59B RF-analyzer meter which allows me to measure RFR (radio frequency radiation) from many sources like cell towers, cell phones, cordless DECT phones and wireless routers. The meter shows the readings on a screen in µW/m² in 3 ranges from 0.01 to 20,000. And there is a speaker that allows me to listen to the various radiation so I can tell if it is a cell tower, cordless phone or a wifi router. I consider this meter indispensable in my RFRadiation Detective work.

One day when I was assisting at a local seniors centre some seniors with computer problems, I showed the effect of the local wireless wifi router on my HF59B meter. The meter’s sound was turned up and this made my students pay close attention. After some discussion about the use of wifi routers and the potential health effects, one student invited me to look what was going on in his home.

So, I went for tea and cookies and did some RFR measuring and what I found was very interesting and disturbing.

Telus had installed a wireless router to handle several Optik TVs in the house. This setup worked well except that the wireless function was not necessary. The router was set on top of the piano close to the dining table and the computer desk, all within 6 feet. The RFR from this router measured at 1 ft peaked at 20,000 µW/m² which is very very high. So the people eating at the table or working at the computer desk would have high RFR exposure.

Nearby, Shaw had installed a wireless router to handle the single wireless laptop computer in the house. This router was set on the floor next to the computer desk and close to the dining table. The RFR from this router measured at 1 ft peaked at about 5,000 µW/m² which is quite high.

In summary, this small house was saturated with RFR from the 2 high powered routers. Also, the small house had aluminum siding which would have kept most of the RFR bouncing around inside the house increasing the exposure many times. I think that the siding may not have been grounded.

I believe that RFR at any level has an impact on the health of the people involved. This fact is supported by 1000’s of reports but dismissed by governments and telecommunication companies because of major financial pressures. High levels of RFR create more health problems. Upon questioning the couple that lived in the house, they said that they were tired a lot of the time and had head aches often. The wife said that she liked getting out of the house, maybe because she felt uncomfortable when in the house.

We discussed the findings and they instructed me to turn off the wifi on both routers and to hook up the laptop to the Shaw router using a cat5 cable which I did.

Now there is no wifi RFR in the house and the levels were down to less than 5 µW/m² with the occasional spike from outside of the house to 10 µW/m². I surveyed the home and the RFR was very low in all rooms.

I hope to interview the couple later to determine if they find any difference in life in a RFR free home.

Findings

1 – Telus had a router with high level wifi for no purpose. The optik TV setup did not need the wifi function.
2 – Neither Telus or Shaw informed the customer of possible health effects of high levels of wifi RFR.
3 – Average people know nothing about the possible health effects of wifi.